


Blocked Bonds 3

by Aiden_Ravelle, AnkhsAngel



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25492240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiden_Ravelle/pseuds/Aiden_Ravelle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnkhsAngel/pseuds/AnkhsAngel
Kudos: 5





	Blocked Bonds 3

Co-written with Amy L./AnkhsAngel

Emu woke slowly, trying to remember how he got where he was. He vaguely remembered being drugged. That would explain why he felt so drowsy. 

He opened his eyes and noticed a woman smiling at him, “Good to see you awake.”

“What do you want?”

“You and CR out of the picture.” She answered plainly.

He soon realized he was strapped to a table and flashbacks took over his mind.

Soon, a few people in white coats entered. They put masks and gloves on before advancing on him. 

“Hold on, patience.” The woman spoke. 

They stopped and sighed. 

“Soon we’ll have the rest of CR in our grasp. I already have agents out to catch them, so soon you might be seeing your friends. Right before you die, of course.”

Emu stayed silent but attempted to free himself from the metal restraints. 

She nodded to the men and they began experimenting on him. He had no idea what they were doing except when he felt pain. He eventually blacked out from a drug they gave him.

The next few hours he was in and out of consciousness, staring up at the white coated people working on him. The next time he woke, he was in a dark cell. He looked himself over and noticed multiple bandages on his body. He felt achy all over and his stomach finally caught up to how long he’d been missing and started rumbling. He stared at the cell wall tiredly. 

He had no idea how much time had passed but it felt like days. He thought of his friends and wondered if they were out looking for him. He knew Parad might be, but part of him worried they’d gotten him too.

Left alone even longer, only seeing someone when they brought water and the occasional piece of bread, he began to lose himself in his mind. The longer that he was there, the more he worried something bad happened to the others. He began feeling more pain spreading throughout his body, struggling to get the right amount of air into his lungs. He stared at his hands and noticed them beginning to glitch in and out of existence. If he was left there much longer..

Parad paced, his mind racing. He could feel Emu very faintly, not enough to teleport to him. He winced as a spike of pain hit. The bugster knew it would only get worse as Emu stressed out more and more. Damn the people who took him! He might break his promise…

He tried to focus on his partner, getting nothing but an occasional spike of pain through the bond. He began to lose hope and his mind clouded. If they didn’t find him in time..Or worse, what if they never found Emu? He felt the beginnings of a panic attack, his knees buckling as he fought to steady his breathing.

Poppy tried to calm the other bugster, “You panicking won’t help find him. Every second is precious if he’s as bad as you say.”

Emu felt faint pangs of panic but he didn’t recognize it as his partner's emotion because of his own panic. He was trying to calm himself because the more he panicked the more he glitched out, but it wasn’t working. He felt himself growing weaker and weaker as it continued. Finally, he curled up in a ball, just waiting for the inevitable. ‘Sorry Parad.. I guess I’m not strong enough without you.’

Parad lay on the floor of CR, his head foggy. He dimly registered someone speaking to him, but couldn’t make out the words. All he could feel was pain, his heart breaking. “Emu…I can’t do this alone. Give me a sign..”

Emu thought he heard Parad’s voice but couldn’t focus hard enough on it to understand the words. He trembled between glitches, his body beginning to shut down.

Hiiro and Poppy entered CR.

“Get up, we need to move quickly,” Hiiro spoke.

After Parad glanced at him he continued, “We tracked the last known location of Emu’s cell. It might not be where he is, but it’ll be a start if he’s not.”

Parad tried to stand, but his legs wouldn’t respond. He bit back a cry of pain and panic, trying to focus.

Hiiro sighed and went to Parad, helping him to stand. “Emu needs you, so try to stay strong a bit longer.”

  
  


Emu heard a noise in the room. He ignored it for a few moments but then a voice spoke, “I told you we’d start taking your friends.”

He looked up and noticed Taiga was being thrown into a cell next to him. The other man was unconscious and was bleeding from a wound on his head.

Emu got up slowly, going to the edge of the cell and trying to reach through the bars to get to Taiga. His arms were too short though. After a few more moments of staring at the other rider, he looked up at the speaker, “Let him go. Do what you want to me but let him out.”

“You’re in no position to be making bargains like that. We already can do what we want with you.” She looked at her watch for a moment before nodding, “Speaking of..” She went through the bars and grabbed Emu’s arm, injecting him with two syringes. He struggled against it, making a large bruise form on his arm. 

He soon felt a bit better which surprised him. After the woman disappeared, he began searching for a way out. 

Hiiro, Poppy, and Parad stood outside a large brick building. 

“Can you sense him?” Poppy asked quietly.

Parad closed his eyes. After a minute, his eyes flew open. “He’s here!” The bugster frowned. “He’s hurt…”

“Well, let’s get to him quickly then,” Hiiro answered before henshining. He threw the door open and entered, starting to take down the people who looked like guards.

A scientist appeared and injected him with something. He hadn’t noticed him appear until it was too late. He also had no idea how a syringe managed to make its way through his suit but it did. Soon, he began feeling odd and his henshin dropped away leaving him unmorphed. He continued to fight and took down a few more people before he was injected with something else that knocked him out.

Poppy tried to sneak around to look for Emu but a wired net dropped down on her. She tried to teleport away from it but found she couldn’t. She was carried to a cell, wires tied around her hands. 

Parad had teleported to where he thought he felt Emu. But the room was empty and he looked around in confusion.

A woman soon appeared and smiled, “Oh, you came right to us without a fight.”

“Where’s Emu?” Parad had one hand behind his back. “Tell me and maybe I won’t hurt you.”

“He’s around. Don’t worry about him though, we gave him something so his disease won’t kill him. Yet, anyway.”

Parad snarls, bringing out his driver. “You  **_will_ ** tell me.” He begins to henshin, then stops as a spike of pain sends him to his knees. “What’s happening?”

“Oh, he probably is seeing all his other friends being tossed into the cells. It seems to make him stress.”

“You bitch!” Parad pushed himself up and threw a punch at her.

She narrowly dodged, then caught his wrist. She slapped something onto it and he felt a shock. She smirked, “You’re ours now too.”

He glared at her. “I’m  _ not _ property!” He tried to pull the bracelet off unsuccessfully, getting a stronger shock.

She grabbed him and pulled him away, into another room. He could see cells lining the walls and noticed Poppy, Taiga, and Hiiro in them. His eyes then landed on Emu.

Emu was once again curled up in pain, trying not to whimper as he glitched.

“EMU!” Parad tried to get to him, pulling at the woman’s hands.

“P-Parad?” Emu looked up with wide eyes. He shook his head rapidly before another spike of pain shot through him.

“Emu, I’m here! Calm down!” Parad tried to send calm through the bond, but screamed when pain ripped through him from the bracelet.

“I... I’m sorry...” Emu whispered.

“Emu…” Parad reaches a hand toward him before passing out.

The woman pulled Parad into a cell and locked the door behind her. 

She dropped him on the floor and kicked him repeatedly. He began sparking in his unconscious state. Pixels began pouring out from a few different places.

Emu squeezed his eyes shut, unable to watch. 

After a while, the woman exited the cell. As she passed Emu’s she smirked, “I think we’ll have to do a dissection of these bugsters. See what we can find out from opening them up.”

Emu opened his eyes wide, begging, “Please... don’t hurt them. Do whatever you want to me, but don’t hurt them.. they’ve done nothing wrong.”

“The humans, maybe, but the bugsters  _ have _ done wrong. We’ll start the dissections at dawn.” She exited.

Emu’s face streaked with tears as he continued to glitch. He began wishing his pain would end and praying he’d disappear fast, not knowing they injected him with something to prevent that.

Hiiro groaned as he woke, looking around and analyzing the situation. He searched the cell for any ways of escape. After a long while, he found a loose bar. He struggled with it for a while until he finally got it off. Squeezing through the hole, he escaped his cell and began to look around. He pulled out his sword and began breaking the locks off the cell doors. He undid the wires from Poppy and took the bracelet off Parad. Taiga was regaining consciousness as well and after a few minutes he stood dizzily. 

“We need to get out of here.” Hiiro assessed. 

“I’ll get Parad, you get Emu.” Taiga answered.

Hiiro entered Emu’s cell and knelt beside him, “Hey. We’re free now. You can calm down and we can go home.”

Emu didn’t seem to notice him, just lost in his pain.

Hiiro sighed and lifted the other doctor.

They made their way out of the building without much fuss, getting to the hospital quickly. 

Poppy sucked Parad into a bugvisor so he could rest while Hiiro attempted to figure out what experiments they did on the now unconscious Emu. 

  
  


Parad woke, groaning as he realized where he was. Then he started pounding on the screen. “EMU! Emu! Let me go! Emu needs me!” He ignored his healing injuries, desperate to get to his host.

“He’s still being worked on by Hiiro,” Poppy answered softly. 

“He’s alive, right?” Parad’s eyes were pleading, his posture tense.

Poppy sighed, “He is, but he’s weak. They did a few different things to him, then with his game disease having acted up so badly..”

“It’s my fault…” Parad sank to his knees. “If I wasn’t here..he wouldn’t be in danger.”

Poppy frowned, “Emu doesn’t care about danger, he cares about you. He wants you around and you know he won’t blame you for this.”

“I blame me! If I hadn’t infected him, he’d be safe. Instead, he’s laying there sick and injured. It all started with me!” Parad’s voice dropped low. “And it will end with me.”

“He needs you. You can help keep him from being sick by keeping the virus in check. He’s had the virus longer than anyone else, we aren’t entirely sure his illness will go away if you die...” She admitted.

“But it might. We should see. Test the hypothesis.” Parad sent her a small smile. “Isn’t that what doctors do?”

“You’ll break his heart either way. Can you really go out knowing you’ll be hurting him that much? And if he still has the virus after you’re gone... It wouldn’t be long before he’d join you.”

“I already sacrificed myself once. So did you.” Parad ran a hand through his hair. “We’re not supposed to be here, Poppy. We were supposed to disappear with Chronicle. We’re just delaying the inevitable.”

Poppy looked up when she heard a noise. 

Parad heard a low growl from Taiga, “You idiot. Emu does everything for you and you plan to just abandon him?” 

“It could heal him. He wouldn’t have game disease anymore. He would no longer be a target.” Parad glowered at the radiologist. “And if I remember correctly, didn’t  **_you_ ** want to wipe out all the bugsters? I’m sure you’ll be happy if I disappear.”

Taiga rolled his eyes, “Unfortunately I’ve grown attached to everyone here, you included. But I won’t let you just give up on Emu. He might have a few more friends now than he used to, but he’d be lonely without you. Even if you cure his game disease, he wouldn’t have the joy in his life that he does now. He’d just get depressed and I don’t think we’d be able to pull him out of it.”

“I..I just don’t want him hurt anymore. If I was gone, no one would hurt him like this.” Parad said softly as he rested his head against the bugvisor. “Just press a button and it would be over…”

Taiga shook his head, “Kagami and I get taken and injured just for working in CR. It’s part of the job. They might not do as many experiments on him, but even without you, he’s the start of the virus. That still gives reason to experiment. With you here, there’s one more person to help save him when things go bad.”

Parad sighed and raised his head. “I’m..” His eyes rolled back as he began sparking. He fell backwards and didn’t move.

Poppy entered the bugvisor and checked him over. “We need to get Emu awake so he can help him.”

“He’s out right now, but you can try waking him if you want,” Hiiro entered the room.

Emu woke slightly as he felt shaking on his arm. He blinked his eyes open and stared forward.

“Emu?”

His eyes darted to the speaker but he didn’t answer.

“Emu, Parad needs you.”

A flash of worry crossed his eyes and he tried to push himself up. He winced as he slightly glitched. 

“He’ll be able to help you with that too while you help him heal,” Poppy said softly. She handed him the bugvisor. He soon absorbed Parad within him, beginning to feel a bit better.

_ “Emu? Are you alright?” _ Parad asked weakly.

“ _ Parad? I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to keep you safe or to keep myself safe either..” _

_ “It’s not your fault. It’s..it’s mine.” _

_ “No. I’m your host, it’s my job to take care of you.” _

_ “If I hadn’t infected you..you’d be a normal doctor. No one would try to hurt you…” _ A wave of regret came over the bond from the bugster.  _ “I’m the cause of everything..” _

_ “You’re my friend and you’re important to me. You know how lonely I was back then.. Remember, I even tried to end things.. But then you came and things weren’t so bad.” _

_ “I’m sorry. I was going to game over…I just want you safe.” _ Parad sounded sad and exhausted.

_ “Don’t game over.. I care too much about you,”  _ he said quietly. “ _ Just rest, and everything will be okay.” _

Parad sent a burst of affection over the bond before drifting off.

Emu smiled softly before he joined his partner in sleep.


End file.
